Happy New Year! We kick start year 2017 with Serious Play Improv Lab (SPIL 029), featuring an international line-up! Come catch The Mirror Unit, a duo with Georg Wisell from Germany and Singapore based Timothy O’Dwyer (alto saxophone & preparations); Ignaz Schick (turntables, live-electronics; Germany); and local improvisers Yong Yandsen (tenor saxaphone), Sudarshan Chandra Kumar (electronics/vocals) and Kok Siew-Wai (vocals).
Date & Time: Thursday, 19, door opens at 8pm
Venue: Findars Art Space, No. 8, 4th Floor, 50150 KL.
Admission by Suggested Donation: RM20
https://www.facebook.com/events/217510001988822/
ABOUT THE MUSICIANS:
THE MIRROR UNIT (2014 – )
Georg Wisell (Alto Saxophone & Preparations), Cologne/ Germany
Tim O’Dwyer (Alto Saxophone & Preparations), Singapore
“The Mirror Unit, which brings face to face two of the best saxophonists of the improvised stage, is the most beautiful extension of this innovative spirit that I have ever heard in this process: two noses, two reeds two columns of air, keys, two breaths, all led by a total collusion with the help of preparations of the instrument, the alto sax. Tim O’Dwyer and Georg Wissel here create a singular work, a demanding music, voluptuous, radical, inspired. Their music based on a demanding mutual listening is presented both as a research of frantic sounds and careful architecture.” (Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg)
IGNAZ SCHICK is a Berlin-based turntablist, sound artist, performer, composer and visual artist, with a background in free jazz, avant rock, sound art and experimental music. He has been also prolific as curator (Festival für Andere Musik, Erase & Reset, Time Shifts, TITO, Echtzeitmusiktage 2010, …) and runs the experimental music label Zarek. Schick has toured worldwide solo or with groups like Perlonex, Phosphor, Berlin Sound Connective, Nighthawk Kitchen, Tree People, Splitter Orchestra, Ilog and many more. He has released music on several labels like Absinth, Boomslang Records, Charhizmha, Irrah, Le Petit Mignon, Mikroton, Nexsound, Non Visual Objects, Potlatch, Staalplaat and his own imprint Zarek and collaborated with more than a hundred international sonic artists – amongst others with Mwata Bowden, Don Cherry, Sven-Ake Johansson, Paul Lovens, Toshi Nakamura, Charlemagne Palestine, Andrea Parkins, Keith Rowe, Akira Sakata, Matthias Spahlinger or Martin Tetreault.
YONG YANDSEN is an improvised saxophonist. He has played at the Kuala Lumpur Contemporary Music Festival, Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), Mosaic Festival Singapore, Choppa Eclectic Improvised Music Festival (Singapore), Turn Around Free Jazz & Improvisation Festival (Singapore), Music Matters Festival (Sri Lanka) amongst others. Yandsen, together with Darren Moore and Brian OíReily, form an improvised trio called Game of Patience. They have toured to Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. They released debut CD album “Trial and Error” and a vinyl album “The Bad Sleeps Well”.
SUDARSHAN CHANDRA KUMAR has performed for the CHOPPA Music Fest (Singapore), Playfreely (Singapore), Switch On (Malaysia) and KLEX Festival (Malaysia). He participates in Serious Play Improv Lab (SPIL) regularly, a monthly experimental music series in Kuala Lumpur. Sudarshan has contributed vocals and live electronics to the following bands: HKPT, Takdir, Sorry and Think!Tadpole!Think!. Working with music for theatre, he is the music facilitator for Main Wayang (2015-2016), a children’s theatre workshop which emphasizes on the basics for orchestrating D.I.Y multimedia performances and has directed and scored music for his musical “The Propitiation of Fundamentals” (2015).
KOK SIEW-WAI is a vocal improviser, artist-organiser and video artist. She has performed in festivals such as Kuala Lumpur Contemporary Music Festival, SoundBridge Contemporary Music Festival, Choppa Experimental Music Festival (Singapore), Playfreely Festival (Singapore), Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), E-Poetry Festival (USA) and more. Siew-Wai is the co-founder, co-curator and director of the Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX).
SERIOUS PLAY IMPROV LAB (SPIL) SERIES:
SPIL is a project of the Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX) launched in May 2014. It aims to create exposure and understanding, and to facilitate local, regional and international collaborations and exchanges for experimental and improvised music in Malaysia.
More info: [email protected]
https://klexfestival.com/spil/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/klexfest/